Grainger, the largest listed landlord in the UK, has snapped up over 900 residential units at a cost of £76m.

The rental properties will deliver the company an extra £6m in rent annually.

Its latest acquisition, for £58m, consists of 614 residential properties, most subject to Assured Shorthold Tenancies. The price paid is said to be a discount on a vacant possession value of about £66m.

The homes, bought from Sarunas Properties, are in Cambridgeshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Merseyside and Nottinghamshire, as well as a small proportion of properties in Scotland.

Contracts were exchanged yesterday and the deal is expected to complete in May, using Grainger’s existing financing facilities.

Sarunas Properties is owned by global investors the Pervaiz Naviede Family Trust.

The remainder of Grainger’s recent investments over the past few months has comprised smaller portfolio acquisitions across the UK, in line with Grainger’s normal investment strategy.

This acquisition follows on from Grainger’s stated ambition set out at its full-year results in November to invest more heavily into the UK regions outside London and the south-east.

The deals were all advised by law firm Bond Dickinson, several of whose offices were involved in the latest deal.